First ever Grand slam nymph kit

[mike_richardson]

I tied up this box for a turkey call making buddy of mine in trade with for a turkey call. He made me a pot call with a picture of my son and I under the glass. It is a double sided call so the soundboard can be played.

This box is made up entirely of the 4 species of wild turkey that comprise the "Grand Slam". If you are looking at the box picture from top to bottom it is:

MERRIAMS
OSCEOLA
EASTERN
RIO

This is one box of flies that I just don't want to give away. LOL I am hopelessly addicted to turkey hunting 10 times worse than tying or fly fishing. Was really cool to work with each of the species. The tails are not perfect on these and it bugs me but in order to utilize as much turkey as I could in these flies I opted to leave the tails as is. The tips of the eastern are so thin compared to the others. I really like working with the Merriams as I think its colors are very nymph like. If you use the tips as I did you get that white color and can easily make a two tone nymph. I love using that part of the feather on my caddis larva patterns. The Rio has a cool orange color as compared to dark brown or burgundy on the eastern and merriams. Osceolas are kind of a darker almost black bird, so I chose the black legs and black bead head.

Kind of a cool theme for a box of flies. I am lucky to have turkey hunter friends from all over the country to hook me up with the feathers I needed to complete this box for my buddy.

Thanks for the look.

 

[mike_richardson]

LOL also on the tails some of the fibers took some bb's when the birds were shot so they had some inconsistent lengths. I just have OCD about proportions and consistency so it is going to eat me a live. LOL

I sent the pictures to my buddy and he loved them so I guess that's all that matters.

 

[GenCon]

Very cool Mike. Good job on the flys.

GenCon

 

[nomad_archer]

Mike they look great. I really like the merriams now to see if I can find some of those feathers.

 

[RCFetter]

Nice write up on the turkey feathers Mike. Flies look great.

 

[mike_richardson]

Thanks guys,

Everytime I look at the tails I cringe but it is what it is. Those easterns are tough because the fiber gets so thin. If you cut too much fibers it throws the body off. I could have did something like black pheasant tail, or even pheasant tail, but it would take away from the theme of the box.

I loved tying this one, but hated to see it go.

 

[jacob]

nice! i bet they'll catch some fish - I wouldn't stress about the tails!